Some Of The World's Most Expensive Precious Gemstones
These stones are so special that only a few extremely wealthy people can afford them. Here are eight of the world's most expensive precious gemstones.
There are certain gems in the world that are so rare and extraordinary that they are worth a fortune. It's certainly not a world that everyone has access to, the reason being that the sums bandied about in these circles are often exorbitant.
Some Of The World's Most Expensive Precious Gemstones
1. The Millennium Sapphire
The size of a football, the Millennium Sapphire is a jewel carved with portraits of famous historical figures and is worth 180 million dollars. The 61,500-carat sapphire is impressive!
Designed by Italian artist Alessio Boschi, the Millennium Sapphire was conceived as a tribute to human genius and features 134 personalities, including the faces of Beethoven, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Albert Einstein, and Martin Luther King Jr.
A consortium of investors led by Daniel McKinney owns Millennium Sapphire. In the past 15 years, the impressive sapphire has only been on public display twice - in 2002 at the Academy Awards and two years later for the maiden voyage of the Princess Sapphire cruise ship.
The Millennium Sapphire is 11 inches high and was discovered in Madagascar in 1995. It weighs about 90,000 carats in its rough state and lost about a third of its mass during the finishing process, which took two years and was completed in 2000.
2. The Koh-I-Noor Diamond - The Jewel In The British Crown
The Koh-i-Noor is a 106-carat diamond that was once the largest and most expressive precious gemstone in the world. Previously owned by several rulers of India, it is now in the hands of the British Royal Family and is part of the Crown Jewels collection.
When the Koh-i-Noor diamond arrived in the hands of the British royal family it weighed 186 carats (37 grams). Prince Albert searched carefully for a jeweler to polish the diamond and he had to have an outstanding reputation in this field. So he arrived in the Netherlands and found Mr. Cantor, whom he entrusted with the task of finishing the diamond. When the work was finished, it was presented to Queen Victoria.
It became one of the crown jewels and was last worn by the Queen Mother during her coronation as Empress of India.
3. Dom Pedro - The Largest Aquamarine Gemstone
The world's largest finished aquamarine gemstone is on permanent display in Washington, along with Hope Diamond and Marie Antoinette earrings. It is one of the most expressive gemstones in the world.
Discovered in Brazil in the 1980s, the Dom Pedro aquamarine has a distinguished place in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. The blue-green obelisk-shaped jewel was designed by renowned German jeweler Bernd Munsteiner. It is 14 inches high and weighs 10,363 carats (two kilograms).
4. The World's Largest Pearl
On 21 November 2010, the world's largest pearl was displayed in Wenchang, in China's southern province of Hainan. Weighing six tonnes and measuring 1.6 meters in diameter, it is the largest pearl ever discovered and is estimated to be worth over 300 million dollars.
The stone, made mostly of fluorite, glows green in the dark. It took the discoverers three years to finish it in its current form.
5. Graff Pink - One Of The World's Most Expensive Pink Diamonds
Laurence Graff is one of the world's renowned dealers when it comes to diamonds and precious gemstones, and in 2010, he confirmed that reputation when he acquired a rare 24.78-carat pink diamond. Graff is also one of the UK's richest art buyers and owns his own diamond mine outside Johannesburg.
The stunning pink diamond and its auction price stunned the staff at Sotheby's. The auction stirred up a lot of excitement as the bids kept coming in. In the end, Laurence Graff, who had a passion for diamonds, eventually paid 45 million dollars.
However, the most expensive pink diamond per carat ever sold in the world is the 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star diamond. It was sold at a Sotheby's auction for 57.73 million dollars (a price tag includes the auctioneer's fees).
6. Ethereal Carolina Divine
Financier Vincent Boucher of Montreal is the owner of the Ethereal Carolina Divine Paraiba, a nearly 192-carat Paraiba tourmaline worth between $25 million and $125 million. It sets a new world record for the largest finished Paraiba tourmaline.
Paraiba tourmaline is one of the world's rarest gemstones, a favorite of collectors and elite jewelers around the world.
One Paraiba tourmaline (named after the Brazilian region where the vast majority of them are found, including Boucher's) is found for every 10,000 diamonds, and Boucher pointed out that only a total of 50 kilograms of such gems have been recovered to date.
7. The Bahia Emerald
The Bahia emerald is one of the largest and most expressive emeralds in the world, and the stone weighs approximately 381 kg (1,900,000 carats) and comes from Bahia, Brazil. While the stone has been valued at around $400 million, its true value is unclear.
After it was moved from Brazil to the United States, there were several attempts to sell it, but without success - there were conflicting ownership claims. Eventually, the emerald was seized from a Las Vegas jewelry dealer and taken into the custody of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.
8. Moussaieff Red Diamond - The Most Famous Red Diamond
Once known as the Red Shield Diamond, the Moussaieff Red Diamond is the largest red diamond in the world, weighing 5.11 carats.
Discovered in Brazil in the 1990s by a Brazilian farmer in the Abzetezinho River, its rough weight was 13.90 carats
The extremely rare red diamond was then bought by The William Goldberg Diamond Corporation from New York and was originally named the Red Shield Diamond. The jewelers cut into an exceptional triangular brilliant cut (also known as the Trilliant cut). After losing 8.79 carats, the final piece was simply impressive.
The unique precious stone was renamed by the Moussaieff Jewellers when they purchased it for 8 million dollars at the turn of the century, in 2001.
The Moussaieff Red Diamond, which is internally flawless, has been regularly presented to exhibitions, and, according to some estimates, it is worth now at least 20 million dollars.
"It's a really surprising cranberry color, quite unlike any other diamond I've ever seen," commented expert gemologist Michael Hing said, quoted by Diamond News.
The Moussaieff Red Diamond is definitely one of the most expressive precious gemstones in the world.
Cover Photo Credit: 颐园居, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
